SIR,-1 haven't read The Fourth of June or seen the
play and 1 haven't read The Hill since about 1914, hut, unless my memory fails me, Mr. David Pryce- 'Jones has got his names and characters mixed up in the Spectator. 1 think the horridacad in The Hill was called Scaife, not Searle. And he was not a grammar- school guinea pig, but the son of a millionaire and a brilliant cricketer. He was not like Mr. Benedictus's hero or victim (as described in reviews of the book and play), but a brother in status and character of 'the Bounder,' Herbert Vernon-Smith of Grcyfriars.
Peterhouse, Cambridge
DENIS BROGAN
[David Pryce-Jones writes: 'Professor Brogan's memory, unlike mine, does not fail. Scaife, the Demon, certainly didn't come from a grammar school, but he was a misfit at Harrow all the same. "'One is reminded sometimes.' said the Caterpillar solemnly, 'that the poor Demon is the son of a Liverpool merchant, bred in or about the ducks' " Cricket of course should have kept them quite separate.'—Editor, Spectator.]
Previous page
